When I was a boy in Teplitz, Bessarabia, the school
children were taught practical crafts as part of their
school exercises. One thing we had plenty of for materials
were corn husks. One thing we needed, with only dirt
roads and dirt paths to walk on, were door mats to
clean our shoes before entering the house. And so
we were taught the practical craft of turning the
corn husks into door mats. We would braid the corn
husks together into long braids, and then sew them
together with strong thread. Starting at the center
of the mat, we would lash the corn-husk braids together
around and around until the round or oval mat was
a usable size. These mats were placed next to a dirt-scraper
at the entrance to the house and another mat was placed
just inside the door. The dirt-scraper was a 3x10-inch
long blade with two spikes attached on each end that
was rammed into the ground near the entrance to the
house. Young men learning to be black-smiths made
these dirt scrapers as gifts for their parents.

Another craft item we were taught to make in school
were horse-hair brushes mounted on wooden handles.
My father made the wooden bases in different shapes
with holes. For the bristles, we used hair from the
horses' tails and necks. We never cut large amounts
of hair from a horse's tail, for each horse needed
its tail hair to chase away the flies, of which we
had plenty. We
carefully trimmed small amounts of hair from an animal
to get what we needed. We would ream the holes of
the wooden handles so that the holes were wider at
the top than at the bottom. Then we would gather some
of the horse-hair into a small strand, wrap some fine
wire around the strand of hair at mid-point, then
bend the strand of hair double at the wire. After
fitting the hair through
the hole so that it was in tight, we carefully trimmed
it. Then we painted the wooden handle to give it a
nice finish. As we made these brushes, for added design
we would swap colors of horse-hair so that the brush
hairs ended up with dark and light designs. We had
white horse-hair and dark-horse hair. We even mixed
in some hair from cow's tails to get a nice center
line. There was always a friendly competition among
the students as to who could be the most creative
and come up with the nicest-looking brush. This was
a craft that the students always enjoyed.

Another item the older girls and boys made were called
"Lumpen-Schuhe" - fabric house-shoes (slippers)
made from old discarded clothing. Layers of fabric
would be sewn together by hand, and then the soles
would be cut to size. Then the top pieces for the
slippers would be cut from fabric and sewn onto the
soles. Colorful yarn was used to decorate and finish
the tops of these
slippers. These slippers were much appreciated to
keep our feet warm in the house during the winter
months.

The girls would cut fabric strips from old clothing
and sometimes from leftover fabric to make rugs and
mats for use in the house. This process involved braiding
the fabric strips and then sewing the strips together
in much the same way the corn-husk mats were made.
Most of these fabric mats and rugs were placed beside
the beds in the house. Stepping out of bed onto one
of these small rugs was so much nicer than stepping
out onto a cold floor in the winter-time.

Basket weaving was also practiced among the school-children
as part of their school work. Some boys and girls
were very good at it, but I was not. With all of these
crafts, we learned to be both creative and practical.
The older boys also learned to use their pocket knives
to carve wood, and learned to make their own toys
and game pieces.

Nothing was wasted in our village. We learned creative
ways to make what we needed or what we wanted. We
wanted to play soccer, but we had no ball. So we made
one out of rags by tying the rags firmly together
until we had a rag-ball. While this ball had no bounce,
it still worked for playing soccer! We never ran out
of ideas for making things.

We made our own tool to catch ground squirrels, of
which we had so many they were a nuisance. This squirrel-catching
tool was a rod with a hook on it carefully designed
with a bend to reach into corners. When we had collected
a match-box full of squirrel tails the farmers would
give us enough small change to buy one or two candies.

By age 8 to 9 years of age most children were involved
in helping with the field work. Often this meant sitting
on the back of a horse, guiding it down a line for
field weeding, while an older person would handle
the plow the horse was pulling. This job lasted for
hours a day. That was tough for a young child - sitting
on a horse for hours and with no saddle.

My parents kept pigeons - an enterprise that did
not require a lot of effort. The pigeons did fine
all on their own! It was my job to feed the pigeons.
Then, with my parents' consent, I was allowed to trade
them away for other breeds. Sometimes friends would
try and on occasion did out-smart me in making a deal.
I got pretty good at making trades on things I had
or made. When my father noticed that I was not all
that bad of a dealer, he gave me more freedom. That
was my early start in making trades - a skill that
I later found very useful as I worked to build the
business that brought me success for 33 years.

___________________

Alfred Opp is the author of "Pawns
on the World Stage" - the memoirs of his
childhood in Teplitz, Bessarabia and the experiences
of his family in war-torn Europe (Poland during 1941-1945
before they fled to East Germany in 1945, then the
reconstruction of West Germany 1945-1955).

___________________

Note: Many of these recipes can be found in "Bessarabische
Spezialitaeten:aus der Kolonisten am Schwarzen Meer,
1814 - 1940", 1999, 82 pages in color, compiled
by Gertrud Knopp-Rueb.

English translation of the cookbook title is "Bessarabian
Food Specialities: From the Settlement Period of the
German Colonies in the Black Sea Region, 1814 -1940".